Can You Win?

Should allow most beginners to understand important aspects of applied probability.

If you decide to do any gambling, even a few bucks on your state lottery, consider the price of this book as your first bet. Orkin presents the real odds of most popular gambling games, at least one 'sure fire system' (yes there is such a thing, but you need deep pockets and have to be satisified with a pretty low rate of return), and the effects of the 'house edge'in an entertaining manner and with just a minimum of math. In fact, skipping the math in the book does nothing to reduce the book's usefulness nor your reading enjoyment. Read this if you think gambling is a solution to money problems. In fact, after going through this highly readable and entertaining book you may be tempted to skip the lottery tickets and put the money in casino stock instead!

Casino math for the non-mathematician. If you really want to understand the math, it will take some effort to follow if you haven't dealt with probability and statistics in a while or ever. However, I am so tired of people presenting schemes on how to win at craps, roulette, etc: Martingale, anti-Martingale, D'Alembert, contra-D'Alembert, ad nauseam. No matter how you weight a negative expected return, the sum of the series is still expected to be negative. The risk to people who use these schemes unwittingly to gain a series of small "wins" is the guarantee of a single huge loss somewhere in the future - the longer you put it off, the larger it will be. If you didn't understand what you just read and want to, this book is for you. The writing is brisk, bordering on entertaining (if you're into this sort of thing) and not nearly as dull as you'd expect. The previous reviewer covered which games were presented so I won't repeat. Like Stanford Wong, this author's math is accurate - unlike many, many other authors.

Mike Orkin's book explains the real odds for all the common casino games, and in the process, shows you it is generally better to leave your money in your own pocket, and just watch. Games covered include roulette, craps, Keno, slots machines, sports betting, blackjack, lotteries and horse races. A great chapter on the Prisoner's Dilemma is included, and covers thecomplex issue of when it is best to be a snicth, and when it is best to be quiet.